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About Ashland tidings. (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919 | View Entire Issue (March 23, 1916)
Thnrsdny, March 23, 1016 ASHLAND TIDINGS PAGE SEVEN Angling Extraordinary (Continued from Fage Six) or ten ounces, built short, stocky and powerful, is better. It must be able to handle a long line, which means a heavy line, one practically of light sfllmo salar: but. beinu a little more salmon size. As the ang'er fishes active and not quite so heavy as his ' c,08e l the surface of the water there greater cousin, he will hang more to white water and less to the pools. At the bottom or at the edge of some long, rough ridge of white water, where the waves run four or five feet will be much line submerged In his casting, and bis rod must be powerful in order to lift It as must his wrist be also. Once the fish Is hooked and free in that boiling torrent, the rod high, he will He behind some protect-' nas "sted 0f it aIl that any rod can ing rock, much like the salmon, and I B've- 11 m,,8t ln effect, to be most sometimes he will drop Into a pool efficient, be of just as much weight after the typical salmon fashion. His i 88 one can handle single-handed, with hang-out Is apt to be flanked by a running rapid of flung white water. and be more active. Again, it will make extremely long runs I have never seen any trout take off so much line at one run as the steelhead does. It was my fortune to see this steel head angling at its best In the com pany of some friends of Ashland and Medford on one midsummer day. Our party, more or less unsuccessful dur ing the heated hours, was augmented , in the evening by an auto-load of 'ex' ( These experienced anglers were much disappointed because we found no fish during the day of more than six pounds' weight. They purposed a Journey twenty or thirty miles high er up the river the following day, where they knew water that held abundance of ten and twelve pound fish. "That's the game!" explained one of them. "When you get one o? those fellows you will know you have I the heavy line. The steelhead will follow the When hooked he does not stick to ! rancy ot rresn-water trout in its own height and weight. 1 nese two quite his nool. as a salmon is verv ant to selection or riles., in Habits some-, often fished together, iney wouia do, but makes at once for the current. wnat Iike the freshrun salmon, it still What that means In the tax on tackle I rather favors the freshwater trout; ! and it Is not customary to angle for it any angler will know very well. The Mississippi river bass fishing, where one may play a black bass five or ten minutes In the heavy current, is a sort of kindergarten preliminary in the study of stee'head angling. The vigor of the fish on the line Is something not quite understandable by the eastern angler who has never tried this particular game. Pound for pound, in his own chosen condi tions, the steelhead florrpr, wilder and with the gaudy files that alone serve In salmon angling. In summer even ings the local anglers favor gray hackles, brown hackles, or some mod est fly of that description. Number one hook is a favored size for that river. It Is to be understood that the strain on the tackle Is extreme, and the hook must be large enough not nerts from Medford. led by the nrose-1 had a fight." cuting attorney of that town, a pow- In p!ay on the rod when actually erful man, weighing more than two hooked the Bteelhead Is a combination hundred pounds. His chosen fishing of all the artfulness, courage and companion was the editor of one of strength that exist In fish makeup, the daily papers, a man of medium j He will rush like a muskellunge, tug like a black bass, sulk or rush like a salmon, and leap like a trout. A lock hands and wade out along the I favorite maneuver on his part seems edge of some ridge of rapids, in theUo be a fjullen shaking of the head effort to get out line enough to reach I you feel a continuous series of short, over the lying ground of the steel- j savage Jerks at the line as he tries to heads, which experience had taught; get line enough for a burst out into them was in the deep white water far j the heavy water, where he knows the out in the midd'e of the Btream, current agaliiRt his side will give him where the broken rocks afforded the . added leverage against the rod. puts up a far , to tear out of the fish's mouth. At more difficult i times In the erenlng the coachman is fight than docs the most difficult ex ample of salmo sa'ar in the highest priced salmon river In the world. Tlio Tlisk of the Stort. He Is moreover, democratic. There are no salmon preserves on the Rogue river as yet it Is oppn water for all the world. Very likelv It alwavs will be. Certainly If you took all the' members of the swellest salmon clubs of Quebec and put them on the Rogue . river on foot, the fish they wou'd rrlng In at night would not a'ways be very imposing In the total. Time was when tne utppinead could be reached from the shores of the : Rogue river with fair success; but he has learned a thing or two In the j fight for life and today he is a wise, I wise fish. He keeps out. so that yon are obliged to wade for him If you ; want him. If you slip goodby! the river gets yon. Anglers do swim out of the Rogue river once In a while, because they have to swim; and no man who Is not a hold swim- j mer has any business wading the Rogue; but sometimes in very wild water the angler does not get out. The writer fished with one skillful angler who admitted that he had lost a part of his nerve. "I saw my pal , drowned before my eyes two years ' ago," he said, "and since then I don't j go out so far." Each year, at one ! place or another, there is apt to be ' the record of a life lost. Local anglers gradually learn con- j tempt for the dangers. Also, gradu-1 al'y they learn a sort of Instinct by which they can judge the bottom of j the river. Indepd. thev know the I bottom like a bock in the more fa-1? miliar reaches, which they often fish. If you wish to -see Rogue river Bteelhead angling at its best, there fore, you had better go out with some of the more seasoned anglers of Ash land, Medford or Grants Pass, com munities where this cult most flous Ishes. In such communities one can get very comfortable accomodations and can readily get directions for the river. The stranger, however, would j be more or less helpless, and there are few or no professional guides. He will find the angling sportsman of this country the sou of hospitality, ready to help him learn the game, and himself so well convinced of the difficulty of the game as not to laugh at the inefficiency of the beginner. In the Rogue River Valley it ,1s sometimes hot in the summertime 100, 102, 105, in the shade, and no one knows what In the sun. The heat does not seem oppressive, but it has a tendency'when continued through a term of days or weeks to' drive the fish out into the deeper water. Very early morning or late In the evening will be the best times then to angle for steelheads. Throughout the day ope might not get more than two or three strikes In reward for patient casting. ' The rod for steelhead fishing must be very powerful, of course. The fish can be killed on the ordinary five or six ounce trout rod: but one of eight found effective. Most anglers during the day will change flies as they do on any trout stream. The usual un certainty as to what the Bteelhead act ually Is going to want is before you fish a chance to hold their own against the current. Time and.again, as these two hardy souls slipped and slid on their way out to the middle of the river, we ex pected to see them go down; but they proved their ability to fish ln those conditions. Such angling would be a physical impossibility for any salmon angler accustomed on'y to boatwork, or for any trout angler used only to gentler streams. It was the most ex- a'l the time. At the time of the ; citing angling I have ever seen during writer's visit. In July, the gray hackle j a life more or less passed in wander- was perjiaps the best fly In use. In water like this It is naturally some time before a fish can be sub dued after it is hooked. The angler will have a fight on his hands every minute of the time he may rest as sured of that. He will have rushing tactics moring and sulking some times, if the water permits; but his fish, being smaller than a genuine sa'mon, will rush more, leap more ing. Of course in this sort of fishing the shoes are hobnailed heavily. Beyond that, the angler does not wear very much of a costume. Waders would be out of the question to be carried down in breast-high waders would mean death for any swimmer in that stream. Stripped to overalls and un dershirt and wading shoes, these men go into battle. He will always fight remote from the angler fifty, sixty, seventy-five feet; so that in the dim light of even ing, when the sport is best, it Is often difficult to see clearly what the fish is doing, even when he Jumps only out at the end of that tense strand of silk one fee's something savage, fearless, courageous. Take this feel ing with that inspired by the roaring river, and the angler Is not always sure whether he is the pursued or the pursuer. Thousands of men have killed their j salmon skillfully, comfortably and I enjoyably; but you must number in less than hundreds the fly-fishermen who have ever killed their steelheads, fair and square, heel and toe, pull devil, pull baker, midstream casting, waist-deep. Nut Cake is simply delicious when made with I Baking Powder Pure Healthful Economical The highest grade of baking powder pos sible to buy and your money refunded if it fails to satisfy. Ask your dealer. Jaques Mfg. Co., Chicago mi The Opera 'CARMEN At High School Friday Evening Gymnasium March 24, 1916 Pair of Toulouse geese and goose eggs for sale. Inquire at 1&5 Morton street. 86-2t BE Home Laundry Good Work Done Promptly AT THE Itougli Dry at ReiiNonable Prices. New Machinery. J. N. MSBET, Mar. 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